A colleague writes in, asking me to bring the following to your attention:

The University of Birmingham is attempting to close departments and programmes when the senior management feels that such programmes are “underperforming” in some way. Archaeology is the latest casualty. This institution has already closed the internationally-famous Cultural Studies programme, and the Sociology Department. It has converted many positions in Mathematics to teaching-only contracts, and informed faculty of this move by email. This is an example of what could happen in North American universities.

Another colleague writes in to provide the link for the UK’s Campaign for Public Universities. Thanks to both for writing in. Both links are below.